Students in foster care face barriers to school success that can be overcome. Texas can help more children thrive at school and achieve educational and lifelong success by cutting red tape that gets in kids’ way and being responsive to the circumstances that foster children face.
When children are taken out of their homes because of child abuse or neglect, upheaval naturally follows. Separating kids from their families also means, many times, separation from their communities and their schools, and this can create barriers to lifelong success. Removing red tape that stands in the way of foster youths’ school enrollment and ensuring schools have resources to help these child victims would remedy some of what is keeping more foster children from succeeding at school. Texas has made some pilot efforts at this, but sustained, statewide improvements would ensure all Texas schools with foster students promote youth success.